3 Ways to Consolidate Your Debt

If you want to consolidate your credit card accounts and other debt and you have a history of bad credit, there are presently many options online to help you do so. Here are three of the services that you can find online.

First is to obtain an equity loan. This loan is ideal for debt consolidation for as long as you have a home that you can use

the equity or the maximum appraised value to obtain the money that you need.

Second is to apply for an unsecured loan. This type of loan does not require any collateral and does not have plenty of requirements. However, because you have a bad credit, expect this loan to have higher interest fees and not so flexible payment terms.

Third is not to take any form of loan but look for companies offering their financial

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services to assist you in managing your debt without the need to use a loan. Oftentimes, these companies will request for a fee to help you negotiate to your creditors to lower your interest rates and monthly dues. This technique is usually effective in bringing down or completely getting rid of your debt.

There are still many other ways to find a service that will help you manage your debt. Whatever choice you make, just make sure that the company you entrust your credit with will truly help you. There are many companies that will just go after your money and scam you to spend more. These companies will put you in a much worse debt situation so you have to be very careful. Thus, look for legit companies before making your choice.

Debt consolidation is a good solution that can help you manage your bills to be able to pay them on time. You just need to carefully look for the right service and choose the best deal before finalizing your decision to consolidate your debt.

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Details of the Credit Repair Process

If you are one of the many whose credit rating has been suffering for the past years up to this holiday season, you can now take action and do the things you need in order to get back on track with a good credit score.  First off, you can get  a free online credit repair guide that explains the details of the theory and requirements behind the process of credit repair.  Here are the steps that you should take:

1.) Ask for a copy of your credit report. It is important that you obtain the free yearly credit report you are eligible to have from every credit reporting agency.

2.) Check your report. Look at every item and make sure you are aware of each one that is listed whether it is good or bad.

3.) List all the items you think are negative or questionable. Remember that you have to dispute the negative ones whether you agree to them or not so you have to take notes. You have the right to legally argue anything in your credit report.

4.) Compose your dispute letters to the credit bureaus. You can find sample letters that you can use as reference while writing.

5.) Send your letter to the credit bureaus through mail. Use certified mail to obtain proof that the bureaus have received them. Bureaus have 30 days to fix disputes. If they cannot accomplish it within a specific time, the item must be removed.

6.) List and track your efforts. Note down when you mailed letters and the results you obtained.

7.) Wait for the bureaus’ investigation of your claims. Take note if the bureau gave a timely response. If not, the listing must be removed.

8.) Check the results. Once the bureau has given you a response, check the adjustments and changes in your credit report.

9.) Repeat. Raise your negative items again but make sure to note the variations in grounds for the dispute compared to the previous time.

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Is Debt Consolidation Effective in Debt Settlement?

Debt consolidation is a process of settling your debt. Although very popular, most people ask if it is an effective method even for people who are already swimming in debt.

The straightforward answer to this is NO. Usually, opting for debt consolidation does not decrease the total amount of debt you owe. What it simply does is to combine all your debts and allow you a way to make monthly payments that will settle a portion of all your dues. Your payment goes to an agent or debt consolidator who will normally charge a significant fee for the service they are providing of getting your monthly payments and making sure that every creditor is paid on time with the sufficient amount.

In the past years, there have been plenty of scams associated with debt consolidation that have taken away millions of dollars from individuals who paid their dues and later realized that their money never reached the creditors or were handed in late that is why penalties and high interest rates were charged. This led them to suffer a worse condition compared to where they started.

There are also loans for debt consolidation that are charged with high interest rates for those who do not have sufficient cash to settle their bills each month. This is an even worse option in many cases. The reason for this is that the loan will most unlikely cover all of your debts which means that you still owe a lot to your creditors and you have another loan to a new creditor. When you carefully analyze this, you have a higher total debt than the time you started with the consolidation.

Debt consolidation and loans may just lengthen and worsen your existing debt. Oftentimes, they do not get people out of their debt situation.

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Reasons why Debt Negotiation is Difficult

With the bad economy, limited income opportunities and evaporated real estate equity, many people are having difficulties paying off their debts. An increasing number of families are forced to make a difficult choice of either paying their mortgage or their other debts like credit cards and medical bills. Because of this, it comes as no surprise that many people are holding on to the slightest hope that they can get out of their debt situation. The truth is having unsecured debts like credit cards will be very difficult to pay. Some still try debt negotiation, but oftentimes, it doesn’t work for everyone. Here are the reasons why:

1.) Unrealistic expectations. Most people seeking to pay their debts have the expectation that they can easily do it because they heard that their neighbors did. They easily assume that seeking the help of a lawyer will be the solution that they are looking for. But, most people who want to negotiate debts do not have the capacity to deal with the settlements that may be offered to them.

2.) Money is required to bargain settlements. Being unemployed and not having enough money to pay regular bills like rent, mortgage, transportation, food and other day to day necessities will make it very challenging to negotiate other bills because there is no remaining cash left to use for the negotiation.

3.) Unsecured debts. Usually, most people with serious debt challenges have plenty of unsecured debts. They do not only have one but more. This won’t work with debt negotiation. Enough cash flow is needed to make a negotiation or settle them. Otherwise, the process is bound to fail. It is not helpful to negotiate several debts and only end up having the debt creditors bring them to court.

4.) Debt negotiation takes time. Even with the representation of a lawyer, it is not impossible to get sued and have a court judgment in the middle of the negotiation. This happens all the time.

There are some successful people with debt negotiation. They are able to settle debts with creditors and pay their debts on time in a certain number of months and years. However, their credit rating is affected and the debts will not reflect as “fully paid.” Instead, it will only show as “settled.” Yet, this does not free them completely. More money is required and any forgiven debt may be taxed as income.

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Obtaining a mortgage with bad credit

Obtaining a mortgage with bad credit these days is almost impossible. Because of the poor economy, and the problems the United States experienced during the credit crunch and the housing bubble bursting, banks and lending institutions are wary of lending money to anyone that has less than stellar credit.

If you have bad credit, and are wanting to get a mortgage to buy a house, one of the first things you should condider doing is getting your credit report. Once a year you can get your credit report for free from freecreditreport.com

When you have this, you can find out what is causing your credit to be bad. There may also

be mistakes on the credit report and you can get t hem fixed. By doing this, you can effectively raise your credit score.

A few things you want to do is pay off your debt. Right now, lending institutions are lending for people that have a low debt to income ratio. That means that you have to be making more than you are spending monthly.

Take a look at your spending habits and see if you are able to have enough left over to pay a mortgage payment, and have some left over.

In general, you should be planning on spending no more than 25-30% of your monthly income on a mortgage.

If you can’t do that, you may want to reconsider trying for a mortgage loan.

One of the things I like to suggest to people is to work on improving your credit score and save money at the same time. If you do this, you will have good credit when you buy your home, and will have the money saved.

Expect to have 20-25% of the purchase price of the home ready to make a down payment.

Also note that the better your credit score is, the lower interest rate you will qualify fo

r on the mortgage. This can save you hundreds of dollars monthly. Small changes to the interest make huge impact on the paymnets.

Ask yourself this…. do you really want to add more debt to your burded if you have bad credit? Why are you looking for very bad credit loans?

Ask youself how and why you got in this position in the first place. If you have made changes and made adjustments to your life style then good for you!

But remember, part of the credit reporting system is that your report is a snapshot in time. It is always moving and changing. And, part of the reason things tend to stay on a report for years is it takes time to change.

You want to show that you have sustained change to financial institutions.

So, before going out to see about obtaining a mortgage with bad credit, think about whether or not it really makes sense.

Here is a chart showing some things that are looked at when considering credit score and your ability to obtain a mortgage with bad credit.

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Mortgage loans for people with bad credit

Military loans for people with bad credit

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